Space Shuttle Discovery will take its flight in no earlier than July 2006 to make two 6.5-hour spacewalks to test the 50-foot robotic arm boom extension as a work platform. On the second spacewalk, they'll begin maintenance on the station's Mobile Transporter as well as installing a spare part for the station's thermal control system.

This may not mean anything to ordinary (earthbound) people like us, but maybe these facts will: The total cost of the program as of early 2005 is reported to be at about $145 billion, and is estimated to be $174 billion when the Shuttle retires in 2010. NASA's budget for 2005 allocates 30%, or $5 billion, to Space Shuttle operations.

Maybe right now after looking at the figures, you're asking yourself why is it necessary. The applications of space shuttles include crew rotation, servicing missions like the Hubble Space Telescope, carrying supplies and manned experiments in lower earth orbit.

Aside from the high cost of every flight, the space shuttle has also encountered some legal troubles with regard to safety issues of the aircraft. STS-114 on it's return-to-flight mission in August 2005, was grounded because of unresolved fuel sensor anomalies.

NASA is currently developing a series of human spaceflight spacecraft called the Crew Exploration Vehicle or CEVs under Project Constellation with a $428 million budget from the White House. Which they say will be much cheaper in the long run.

But as scientist, I think they will be the first ones to agree, that taking chances and risks could very well decide the course of our future. To let go of the old and welcome the new. I think the space shuttle has done more than it's fair share of satisfying our insatiable thirst on whatever it is out there in the vast outer space.

Thus, I say kudos to the men and women of every flight for a job well done. To quote Buzz Lightyear: To infinity and beyond!